Sunday, June 25, 2017

The City of Lake Worth’s Wikipedia page: A good source for information — but not all factual — do you own research.


One of the first things you’ll learn on the City’s Wikipedia page (links and more information below) is the present-day City of Lake Worth is named after General William J. Worth, a military hero.

For several reasons, residents and elected leaders have suggested changing the name of the City, for more about that use this link.

A person or persons have been doing yeoman’s* work for the most part on the City’s Wikipedia page. First, some things to be aware of:
  • Checking the page regularly is important. There have been multiple attempts to hijack the City’s Wikipedia page with false information and data.
  • When you visit the Lake Worth Wikipedia site scroll down to the very bottom and look for this (as the line appears today, 5/27): “This page was last modified on 20 June 2017, at 17:17.” Why? Because if this information changes the next time you visit someone has accessed the page and changed or altered some data.
  • The footnote section can be a clever “end-around” to get false/alt information onto the page.
  • Wikipedia pages can be edited by almost anyone: not all the information (e.g., history, statistics, percentages) is up-to-date or even factual. The lesson? Do you own research.
  • Page sections such as “Sister cities”: The City no longer has a Sister City program and “Sopot, Poland”, one of the cities listed, was never Lake Worth’s Sister City. 
  • “The [Beach] pier is home to a tide gauge . . . showing an above average rate of sea level rise.” Learn more about that using this link, learn that “3.56 mm  =  ≈⅛ inch per year”.
  • And, of course, there’s the ever-changing historical revisionism on Wikipedia. There should be a “Fiction” section on our Wiki page just for information such as this and titled, “For Entertainment Purposes Only (not to be taken seriously)”: 
Be very skeptical of all information about the Lake Worth Beach, Casino complex and pool:

For example: “The city’s public swimming pool has been restored. . .”. Not true.
The information about the City’s pool at the Beach is inaccurate. For the facts use this link.

Ready to check out the City of Lake Worth’s Wikipedia page for yourself? Use this link. Have fun and visit on a regular basis to learn more about our little City:

The city was severely damaged in the 1928 hurricane, toppling the bell tower on the elementary school (today the City Hall Annex) and destroying the beachfront casino and automobile bridge over Lake Worth. This led to a severe economic decline within the community, during the Great Depression. Things were so dire in the city in the 1930s, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration built a striking, moorish-styled “City Gymnasium” on the corner of Lake Avenue and Dixie Highway. The building today serves as City Hall.

Learn more about the devastating 1928 Hurricane using this link. Hurricane season officially begins June 1st. Another image from that terrible storm:

For the City’s “Hurricane Planning” website use this link.

*Yeoman. Adjective: performed or rendered in a loyal, valiant, useful, or workmanlike manner, especially in situations that involve a great deal of effort or labor: “He did a yeoman job on the problem.”